The people of Barkham TsogshÃ¶ offering His Holiness the Dalai Lama a symbol of gratitude during proceedings at the Theckchen Choeling courtyard in Dharamsala, HP, India on November 3, 2015. (Photo courtesy/Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL)

(TibetanReview.net, Nov05, 2015) – Some 7000 devotees congregated at the Tsuglakhang, the main Buddhist temple at Dharamshala, India, on Nov 3, the festival of the Buddha’s Descend from Heaven, at a ceremony to make a long-life offering to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, in turn, conferred a White Tara long-life empowerment to the gathering.

The Long-Life Offering was organized principally by the people of Barkham Rongpo, Barkham Tsogshö, Trindo and the Central Executive Committee of the Khampas.

“Today is the day when we commemorate the occasion when the Buddha descended from the Heaven of Thirty-three after spending the Rainy Season teaching his mother who had taken birth in the celestial realms,” the Dalai Lama began.

He began the empowerment with prayers such as ‘Praise to the 17 Masters of Nalanda’, ‘Prayer to the Successive Incarnations of Avalokiteshvara’ and the Tara’s mantra.

He again reiterated that Buddhism was not just a matter of having faith but more importantly of understanding what the Buddha had said and of realizing the truth through personal pursuit of it.

On behalf of the people of Barkham Tsogshö, Tsogshö Shabdrung Rinpoche presented to the Dalai Lama a gold medal bearing images of Tibet and Amitayus the Buddha of Long Life. The people of Barkham Rongpo in their turn offered the Dalai Lama a golden Dharma wheel. Both vowed to keep away from propitiating the controversial spirit Dolgyal and to wean their people back home away from any association with the spirit whose worship the Dalai Lama said brings more harm than good.